


The Once and Future Dad

by demonkidpliz



Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men Evolution
Genre: Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Gen, Honestly Charles What Are You Thinking, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 09:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7752043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonkidpliz/pseuds/demonkidpliz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wanda finds a book in the professor's library. Strangely, it has two names inscribed on the title page. Huh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Once and Future Dad

**Author's Note:**

> I am absolutely terrible, no good at summaries. 
> 
> Just to give you some background, the Maximoff twins are around twelve or thirteen here. Their biological father, Erik Lehnsherr rescued them from Europe, after they manifested, and brought them to the Xavier Mansion to be under the care of his 'old friend'. Basically, a one-shot set in an AU where the Maximoff twins stay at the Institute instead of boarding up with the Brotherhood members.
> 
> This is not-for-profit work of fiction. X-Men characters belong to Marvel and Fox. I own nothing.

Wanda looks at the book she had pulled out of the professor’s library earlier. She had run out of reading material at her new school and the professor had generously suggested that she raid his personal library at the Mansion. So far, she had read five books this week, her mutation not only aiding her in understanding English, a language hitherto foreign to her but also accelerating the speed at which she finished each novel.

The book looked slightly old and worn. The light blue and white striped cover had faded into a bookish gray and yellow. She carefully pried the hardcover open and flipped through the pages. 

_The Once and Future King_.

Her fingers traced the title and the author's name on the opening page. She hadn’t read anything by T.H. White before. Before she could turn over to the first page of the story, her hand froze, her fingers hovering over the top right corner of the thin, yellowing paper.

It wasn’t unusual to find books in the Xavier Mansion with names scribbled on the title page. Wanda had come across several labeled ‘Brian Xavier’ who she assumed was the professor’s father. Some had his mother’s elegant scrawl, simply ‘Sharon’, followed by a date. There were a few really old books with ‘Francis Xavier’ written on the front which Wanda could only assume was the professor’s grandfather.

This one, like many others, bore the professor’s name - _Charles F. Xavier_ \- neatly printed in the professor’s cursive, slightly schoolchild-like handwriting. The blue ink from the ink pen had dried and faded with time.

The name was immediately followed by another, in a darker blue, in ball point, the sharp edges of the spidery, bold, capital letters embedded into the soft paper.

_ERIK M. LEHNSHERR_

Wanda frowned. 

A myriad of questions sprinted through her brain, namely why was her father’s name in a book in the Xavier Mansion library, one which obviously, definitely belonged to the professor?

She filed away the questions in her head to ask her father later, after dinner.

 

Dinner, however, was a quiet and lonely affair. Her father had left the Mansion abruptly without even so much as a goodbye. The professor had elected to stay behind in the small kitchen in the west wing and eat with her and her twin brother, forgoing dinner with the rest of the students of the Institute who ate in the dining hall in the main tower.

Wanda itched to know where her father had suddenly taken off, but knew better than to ask the professor. She resigned herself to wait until the following morning to speak with him, over breakfast.

The silence at the kitchen table was broken by Pietro, who started an animated discussion about the basketball team tryouts at their new school, Bayville High. The professor responded good-naturedly, tactfully omitting the fact that if word ever got out of Pietro’s true identity, the mutant-phobic school would prevent him from participating in any sports.

Wanda was nearly done with her plate when the professor cleared his throat causing her to look up. 

“Kids, since your father has had to leave again tonight and isn’t expected to come back tomorrow, if you don’t mind, Dr. McCoy will drive you to school in the morning."

“Do you know where…” Pietro began.

“No, Pietro, I do not know where your father has gone, or for what purpose. But I assure you that he will be back as soon as possible.” Charles cut in.

Pietro’s shoulders slumped, as he pushed around the vegetables on his plate.

“Come on, then, there’s a good lad. How are you going to play basketball if you don’t get your fill of protein and iron?” Charles urged, kindly.

Pietro did not have to be told twice. He knew from past experience that you never throw away a full plate of food in front of you because you don’t know when the next one will come. Though, after moving to Westchester, that no longer seemed to be a problem for him and his sister.

The twins finished off their meals and Charles helped them clear the plates away. He left them in the sink for one of his help to clean up.

Pietro asked for permission to watch some TV before bedtime. Charles readily agreed. The young teenager sped to the recreation room, at the end of the hall and waited for Charles and Wanda to catch up.

“What about you, Wanda? Would you also like to watch some TV? Or would you like to read something?” the professor asked.

“Uh, actually, I just started on a new book, so I think I’ll just read some more of that before bed time.” she replied.

“Excellent. Which one is it?” Charles asked wheeling himself away from the kitchen towards the rec room.

“ _The Once and Future King_ ,” Wanda mumbled.

Charles nodded his head approvingly, “One of my favourites!"

Wanda’s mouth drew into a thin line.

“What’s wrong, Wanda?” Charles asked gently.

“Nothing. Please don’t…” she made an aborted attempt to block Charles from reading her mind.

“Relax,” Charles smiled, “I wasn't going to. I would never read your mind without your permission.” He stopped a few feet away from the rec room. Wanda turned once she noticed that the mechanical chair had halted.

“Although, you should tell me if something’s on your mind," the professor began. "Remember what we went over in our last training session? Bottling things up just worsens the anger and diminishes control."

“It’s nothing,” Wanda said, shaking her head. “The book - _T_ _he Once and Future King -_ I took it from the library, and, it has your name on it. And it has Vati’s.” she finished lamely.

“Okay,” Charles said, cocking his head to one side, “And?"

“So…” Wanda said stretching her words, unsure of what exactly to say, “Who does it belong to? Is it yours? Or his?"

“Well I guess you could say it belongs to the both of us,” Charles said, shifting slightly in his chair.

Wanda scoffed. That was absurd. “Books are an unusual thing to share,” she said.

Charles shrugged. “So are children."

“That’s not true. Not if you’re…” Wanda stopped abruptly, the words dying in her throat, her eyes growing to the size of saucers, as she realised the implication of her own words.

“What in God’s name is taking the two of you so long?” Pietro howled from inside the rec room. He was still waiting for Charles to come and relinquish the remote to him from its secret hiding place.

“I’ll be right there, kiddo,” Charles called out hastily. He turned to look at Wanda, who frankly looked like she was on the brink of having an aneurysm. “Wanda, I’m sorry, I…"

“No, it’s okay,” she squeaked.

Charles sighed. “How about you have a talk with your father when he gets back? It’s really not my place…"

Wanda nodded and sped out of the corridor and up the stairs, presumably to her room, at a speed that could have rivalled Pietro’s.

 

Charles wheeled himself into the rec room, switched on the TV, and handed Pietro the remote control. The older Maximoff twin immediately surfed to the channel showing Star Trek re-runs.

“Where’s Wanda?” he asked, after a while, not tearing his eyes away from the screen.

“I think she’s called it a night,” Charles said hastily, mentally making a note to call Erik as soon as the kids were asleep. “You should go too. You have school tomorrow. And basketball practice afterwards.” he added, busying himself with some papers that were lying around on the table since yesterday.

“Sure thing, old man,” Pietro said, stifling a yawn. Charles practically froze, his hands suspended in the air in the middle of clearing up the notes and files.

Pietro’s brain ran on loop replaying the last five seconds. He began to stammer, “Not that you’re my…I didn’t mean…uh…I think I should go."

“Good night!” Charles called out after the silver blur that raced out of the room.

He turned to switch off the TV just as Captain Kirk leaned over the Science station to tease his First Officer. Commander Spock responded with a witty remark and a raised eyebrow. The rest of the bridge crew broke out into laughter.

“Oh Erik,” Charles sighed, as the TV screen buzzed and turned to black. He stashed the remote away, “You better come home fast. You have a lot of explaining to do.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing for the X-Men fandom, for a ship that was the first ship I ever shipped. Please leave your kudos and comments. I hope to write more X-Men and Cherik fanfiction in the future.


End file.
